Group starts council with debates on Arab Spring and Green Jobs

This article first appeared in the EGP Newsletter, May 15, 2012

The Green group from the European Parliament opened the 16th EGP Council on Thursday evening, with a public session on the aftermath of the Arab Spring. Almost half the group's MEPs were present along with MPs from host party SF to discuss Europe's involvement and role in helping with the transition from totalitarian regime to democracy in North Africa and the Middle East. Danish Foreign Minister and SF leader Villy Søvndal was there to talk about how Greens in government can help, and was joined on stage by Mrs Basma Kodmani, Member of the executive Bureau and Head of the foreign relations for the Syrian National Council, Mr Samir Frangié, former member of the Lebanese Parliament and author of the book "Au bout de la violence" (Journey through violence), Lebanon and Mr Kamel Jendoubi, President of the Independent High Authority for the Elections (ISIE) in Tunisia. Greens co-president Daniel Cohn Bendit chaired the session.

The recorded livestream of the entire session is online now and available to view.

The second session on Friday morning was on Green Jobs as a way out of the crisis, with Danish Minister of the Environment Ida Auken, Prof. Diana Mangalagiu of the Oxford University Smith School of Enterprise and Environment, Mr Claude Turmes MEP, Vice-President of the Greens/EFA Group, Mr Ulrich Bang, EU Chief of Danskenergi and Mr Thomas Becker, CEO of Genan Business and Development. Greens co-president Rebecca Harms chaired the discussion that focused on practical job creation techniques and the Danish experience.

You can see the full agenda for the meeting and details of the speakers here, and the presentations of the speakers here.

Photos of both events can be seen at the follwing links: here and here.